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Rensselaer Students Build Sustainable Bedroom for Haitian Orphanage
Student Group “Engineers for a Sustainable
World” Transformed Used Shipping Container into Living Quarters
for Orphaned Children Displaced by Tragic 2010 Port-au-Prince
Earthquake
Photo Credit: Andrew Chung
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Members of the student group Engineers for a Sustainable
World (ESW) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
have been hard at work transforming a used 20-foot steel
shipping container into a safe, comfortable, and transportable
bedroom for orphaned children in Haiti.
ESW members and other students at Rensselaer spent the past
semester designing and building the sustainable bedroom, which
will provide secure living quarters, shelter from the weather,
and reliable electricity for 11 orphans and their caretakers.
Several Rensselaer seniors worked on this project for
their capstone design class in the O. T. Swanson
Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory.
The sustainable bedroom will be sent to Haiti on May 25. A
team of Rensselaer students will travel to Croix-des-Bouquets,
Haiti, in August to install the bedroom at the Orphanage of
Good Will and train the caretakers on upkeep and maintenance.
This will be ESW’s third trip to Haiti since 2010.
“For this project, we’re using the engineering smarts we’ve
learned at Rensselaer to develop a sustainable solution for a
very real, pressing need at the Orphanage of Good Will,” said
senior Andrew W. Chung, president of ESW at Rensselaer, who is
dual majoring in mechanical engineering and design, innovation,
and society. “Additionally, by exploring the conversion of used
steel shipping containers into housing structures, we hope to
spread awareness of recycling these abandoned containers for
use in developing countries and disaster-prone regions of the
world.”
The ESW team designed the sustainable bedroom to leverage
the cooling ability of reflective paint, shading, and natural
and active ventilation to ensure a comfortable environment for
those living in the sustainable bedroom. The electrical system
uses roof-mounted solar panels donated by General Electric to
power the bedroom’s ventilation system, lights, and wall
outlets.
The final bedroom will feature windows and a new door. To
maintain the seaworthiness of the shipping container, however,
the windows cannot be constructed until the bedroom is on-site
in Haiti, Chung said.
“This is an outstanding example of engineering students
taking what they learn in the classroom, and applying it to the
creation of solid, globally minded solutions that will have a
tremendously positive impact on the lives of 30 orphans in
Haiti,” said
Michael Jensen, ESW faculty adviser and professor in the Department of Mechanical,
Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer. “It’s
been a pleasure to work with these great Rensselaer students.
Their enthusiasm and hard work on this altruistic project have
been wonderful.”
The project is a partnership between Rensselaer ESW, the
Design Lab at Rensselaer, and the Ballston Spa-based nonprofit
organization To Love a Child. The
Orphanage of Good Will is primarily supported by To Love a
Child. Additional support for the project was provided by the
Office of the President, the School of Engineering, MANE,
Professor Jensen, an anonymous donor, and others at Rensselaer.
To Love a Child and the
Empire Haiti Coalition have collected many supplies, which
will be packed into the container before it is shipped to
Haiti.
The Rensselaer ESW team and To Love a Child started this
project in the fall of 2011. The devastating earthquake on Jan.
12, 2010, at Port-au-Prince rendered the original Orphanage of
Good Will facilities unsafe and uninhabitable. More than 30
orphans were forced to relocate out of Port-au-Prince to
Croix-des-Bouquets, where they have been living ever since.
Rensselaer ESW and To Love a Child have partnered on other
projects over the past few years, including the design and
installation of a solar panel installation to power computers
and lights at a Haitian school, and the design and installation
of a hydroponic garden at the school.
For more information on ESW at Rensselaer, visit:
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Published
May 15,
2012 |
Contact: Michael Mullaney
Phone: (518) 276-6161
E-mail: mullam@rpi.edu |
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